How Yoga Can Prevent Injury & Aid Recovery

Yoga is often thought of as a standalone workout. Styles like Ashtanga, Power Vinyasa, and Sculpt are definitely intense enough to meet your exercise quota for the day. While yoga is certainly an excellent way to stay fit and active, it’s also an ideal complement to other forms of exercise as a way to prevent injury and aid in recovery. In fact, many athletes turn to yoga to extend their careers and aid performance.

“While yoga is certainly an excellent way to stay fit and active, it’s also an ideal complement to other forms of exercise as a way to prevent injury and aid in recovery.”

Yoga’s dynamic, isometric, and static movements are credited by experts with being incredibly beneficial to athletes, but anyone can benefit from these practices. Whether you’re a runner, a weightlifter, rock climber, or even just concerned about maintaining your physical fitness as you age, yoga has been shown to provide many long-term positive effects.

Lengthens Muscle Tissue

By using mostly bodyweight to stretch muscles and tendons in a variety of ways, yoga lengthens and strengthens muscle tissue over time. Since yoga sequences are incredibly diverse and dynamic, it helps to keep the muscles adaptable and responsive, which greatly helps to prevent injury and strains. Keeping the muscle tissues strong and flexible also allows for more range of motion and aids in recovery from repetitive movements that are often seen in various sports or exercises. 

Strengthens Stabilizer Muscles

Stabilizer muscles are tiny muscles that support joints and larger muscle groups during any kind of movement. Keeping these muscles strong is key in preventing injury, as they ensure better and more reliable performance of the larger muscle groups. Yoga is a great way to consistently train and maintain these tiny stabilizing muscles that are often neglected in other forms of exercise. 

Improves Balance and Posture

This inevitable lengthening and strengthening of muscles, tendons, and joints through regular yoga practice leads to better balance and posture, not only while you exercise but in everyday life. Improving your posture through increased flexibility aids in proper alignment and form during exercise and can prevent injury. Better posture can reduce pain and stiffness overall, especially for those of us who work at a desk all day for work. This complex combination of strength and flexibility can also improve balance, which lessens the risk of falling. 

Reduces Inflammation

Research shows that yoga reduces cortisol while increasing natural chemicals such as leptin and adiponectin, which reduce inflammation. Reducing inflammation is essential in recovering from any sort of physical activity that strains your muscles, and can help you bounce back faster. Restorative yoga styles such as Yin and Hatha are excellent for cooling down from an intense workout as well as reducing stress after a hectic day.   

Increased Body Awareness

Not only does yoga improve your physical health, it also provides many mental and emotional benefits. Linking breath to movement and cultivating mindfulness helps to develop greater body awareness, which is beneficial not only for athletes pushing their bodies to the limit but to all of us as we move throughout our everyday lives. More body awareness can reduce clumsiness and accidents, which becomes a greater risk as we age. 

Need support on your fitness journey but don’t know where to start?

Try out our Yoga Stretches for Athletes, Yoga for Lower Back Pain, and Hip Opener Flow.